Talks to determine whether Ukraine is ready to engage with President Donald Trump’s peace process and consequently regain access to U.S. military aid and intelligence started on Tuesday morning.
Ukraine hailed talks with America as having started “constructively”, Kyiv state media reported on Tuesday morning. Delegations from the United States and Ukraine met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the first in-person discussions between the two countries since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous attempt at strong-arm diplomacy at the Oval Office in February.
Representing the United States are U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, both of whom also sat around the table at the earlier Saudi talks with Russia. For Ukraine, the delegation includes Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha, Volodymyr Zelensky’s trusted aide and Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak, and Minister of Defence Rustem Umerov.
President Zelensky himself was in Saudi Arabia on Monday for talks with the Crown Prince but left the country before today’s talks began. Today’s talks are being mediated by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, and their National Security Advisor Mosaad bin Mohammad al-Aiban.
Yermak, a former film producer who has been close to Zelensky since his pre-politics days as a Ukrainian comedian and actor, said of talks as they kicked off: “The meeting with the U.S. team started very constructively; we are working towards a just and lasting peace”.
Both sides evidently hope for a resetting of relations between the nations following sarcastic retorts by President Zelensky in the Oval Office last month which led to an angry response on respect from Vice President J.D. Vance and Zelensky being asked to leave the White House with nothing. Speaking before today’s talks, Yermak stated Ukraine is ready for “a just and lasting peace in Ukraine”.
While this may be a positive development and a step towards a resumption of U.S. aid to Kyiv, similar remarks were made before the White House meeting, with Ukraine’s conception of a “lasting peace” meaning robust security guarantees the U.S. appears to believe will be incompatible with a negotiated peace. President Trump has emphasised the importance of even being able to get Russia to the negotiating table at all, and finding a peace agreement to end what the President has called the “killing fields” of Ukraine.
Speaking to journalists on his plane to Saudi Arabia overnight Rubio also telegraphed his hopes for talks, saying for the United States the key ambition for Tuesday is to discover whether Ukraine really is ready for peace or not, reported The Guardian. He said: “The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things, to end this conflict or at least pause it in some way, shape or form.”
Both sides need to come to the realisation there will never be a military victory for one or other of them in the conflict, Rubio said. His stating Ukraine won’t be able to fight its way back to its 2014 borders has been interpreted as meaning a likely outcome of the eventual peace talks will be Ukraine ceding at least some territory as a price for an end to the killing.
Both Rubio and his colleague the United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have previously made clear the U.S. suspension of aid to Ukraine is a negotiating tactic of Washington to encourage Kyiv to take peace talks seriously, and that it would be reversed when Ukraine came to the table.
Russia is not present at today’s talks but nevertheless made its view on proceedings clear, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claiming Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory — pointing to a drone attack against Moscow overnight — as evidence that Kyiv will try to “spoil” talks in favour of keeping the war going.
